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[raflaunches]

Some more pictures, with a strange man holding the hull for comparison! 

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


Dad's been busy again this week building the stern section, you can now see the full length of the model, Dad has decided to weigh the hull in its current condition and it weighs approx 5.5lbs.




















The slot in the stern is for the vertical stabiliser or what we are calling a skeg.
The aft hydroplanes will be located in the 'skeg' and will also support the lower rudder bracket.





more next week...

[Subculture]

Did you obtain the drawings for this from the National Maritime Museum?

[raflaunches]

Did you obtain the drawings for this from the National Maritime Museum?

Hi subculture


The plans are from the National Maritime Museum, interestingly they show the early hydroplanes on one set of drawings and on the later sets the familiar 'biplane' hydroplanes are drawn on and marked as improvements! They are also to 1/48 (1/4" to 1ft) scale so we are copying the drawings directly on to the wood. They are not 100% perfect but the bulkheads fit together with a little fettling. If you are interested in the plans be warned that one drawings is in two halfs due to some damage from what I was told by the Plans and Photos section of the NMM.
Hope this helps.


Regards


Nick

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


Some more pictures of the build so far, the 'longerons' have been fitted to the starboard side.











You can start to see the shape of the hull forming now, hopefully he will start sheeting it in soon.

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


We've been to a few shows recently so I didn't have time to upload them last weekend so here are two of the skeleton of the hull- almost complete ready for skinning!








At the moment Dad is building the fin/Skeg stabiliser and building in the rudder and aft hydroplane attachment pivot points. I'll take some pictures of them this afternoon.

[raflaunches]

Well I decided to take the pictures now whilst I'm waiting for my paint to dry on my HMS Gnat gunboat.





He is constructing the fin from softwood so it's easier to shape, coating it with a 1/32" ply skin and then covering it with a litho plate outer skin.
The fin slots neatly into the hull and is removable at the moment, the original drawings are not entirely clear about some of the details of the fin and the attaching parts, and we don't have any pictures of her stern that clearly show it either!

[unbuiltnautilus]

I am loving the build technique, is your dad a lapsed aeromodeller, as the hulls box construction smacks of model aircraft fusalage? Or is it just me??

[raflaunches]

Hi unbuiltnautilus


You are quite correct, my Dad used to build model gliders and aircraft in the 1960s, and then joined the RAF as a Halton Apprentice airframe fitter (rigger) in 1967, so he has had more experience building aircraft than boats! I suppose it's instinctive with him now! 

[raflaunches]

Some more pictures, took a while because photo stream was being a bit slow transferring them from my phone!

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


Here are the pictures of the 'fin' build so far...
The aft hydroplane pivot points have been installed- these are made from interlocking brass tubes and coated in a piece of dowel sanded to shape. The skin has been attached to both sides and filed to shape.
His next job is to construct the two horizontal stabilisers that sit just above and slightly further aft of the fin.

[raflaunches]

Some more pictures of whatnot Dad was building yesterday.
These are the two brass tubes for the horizontal stabilisers to attach to, these are a lot smaller than the vertical stabiliser or fin. He hopes to skin some of the hull for the Warwick show to give a representation of the shape of the hull.

[raflaunches]

Anyway, with Dad just come out of hospital for his check up and feeling fine but he has gone mad and stolen the lead from the church roof!
No, not really, but he has started to add the permanent lead ballast to the sections surrounding the keel block.
He is in bad books with my Mum because he has 'borrowed' the kitchen scales to weigh out the lead evenly so both port and starboard boxes are equal in lead weight. He is locking them in place with a piece of wood glued to the keel section before he skins the hull hiding the lead forever. He is keeping a log of what section has what amount of lead in it so hopefully it doesn't sink like a brick on first sea trials! Some section have over 7 pieces of lead in them adding up to over 1.75lbs.

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone

Dad has really pushed himself today, he has completed the lead ballast challenge and started to skin the hull.
After all the ballast fitting my Dad did a bit of maths and worked out that the basic hull structure weighed 6.5lbs and he has just added 20.5lbs of lead!








As you can see in the series of photos the first plate has been attached, well, the first piece of 1/32" plywood sheet has been glued on the hull sealing in over 2lbs of lead!









He is aiming to skin most of the hull ready for Warwick, I don't think anyone will try to nick it, its heavy already!

[Bob K]

Looking awesome.  Great progress been made since I saw the framework at Peterborough.
I admire your dad's confidence in his calculations before sealing compartments in.  I had a similar situation with water ballast volumes in individual compartments recently, which luckily worked out well.
 
Very best wishes with this interesting project 

[raflaunches]

Hi Bob


I'm hoping that the maths is correct too! Using the method recommended on the mayhem a few months ago regarding how to work out your model's weight from the original vessel, the X1 should weigh a maximum weight of 56lbs full load. I think he has decided to ballast the hull to approx 45lbs to what we are estimating to be the light load waterline.
Dad has almost completed the initial skinning of the starboard lower hull, the hull shape has really come out now, you can feel the subtle lines that you can see on the ship's drawings.





Hopefully by this time next weekend he will have finished the initial skinning, at the moment it looks like a modern nuclear submarine!!!

[raflaunches]

My Dad has surpassed himself!
He has started on the upper part of the skinning on the starboard side too! Hopefully the next few pictures will show the hull lines...

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


Some more pictures of the initial hull plating, the bows look  amazing- they've still got to be made 70mm higher and 55mm wider!

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


In preparation for Warwick Dad has made a temporary stand and thought that would take him upto Wednesday! Well he was wrong, so he has made the rudder from brass sheet and tube.

















Dad has made the rudder a little bit bigger just in case, it's not that noticeable but it's a little deeper than it should be.


See you at Warwick...     

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone

After an enjoyable time at Warwick the X1 is back at home undergoing the port side of hull plating. At the show Dad ordered two prop shafts from SHG.
One shaft was 17inches long over all, the other being 22inches! 
They are standard 4mm diameter stainless steel shafts with 1/4inch threaded ends, the brass section due to the length has a centre bearing.
Also at the show I bought Dad (for Christmas) a pair of in-turning 40mm three bladed cast bronze propellers from Prop-Shop.
Here is the prop shafts sitting in place with the new propellers.

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


Not long after I posted last weekend, Dad stuck the prop shafts in to the hull, measuring twice-glueing once!





The props tips are being ground down because they are too long and need to be more blunt in profile.





He will be finishing the initial hull skinning and then start making the prop shaft  A-brackets from brass.

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


The prop shafts have been well and truly attached now, Dad is skinning around the external brass shafts and creating the bottom of the stern.
The rudder, fin, and the propellers have been temporary attached to show what the running end looks like.
The curves of the hull are getting more apparent with the initial layer of plywood, at the Christmas Cracker Dad bought a rudder arm from SHG but even the closest holes to the rudder tube were too far out! He will be drilling his own holes and cutting the arms down to fit within the tight and narrow stern.

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone Happy Christmas


With the prop shafts in place the structure above the shafts and around the rudder arm have been cut out from 6mm softwood. The shape of the stern section is coming a lot clearer, here are the last two pictures I took yesterday, he has continued today with the supporting beams and has glued in some brass tubes for the brass rod which attaches to the rudder tiller arm.

[raflaunches]

Some more pictures of the stern section being sheeted in with 1/32" ply.
Above the rudder tiller arm Dad is making an access hatch for the rudder linkage- just incase!
Thoughts are rapidly moving towards the turrets and the control mechanisms to allow them to rotate together, just making the open turrets will be a challenge but it would look brilliant if they moved around. Dad has been reading the X1 book again and studying the plans, and initially he wanted her to be fully rigged with her masts raised with wireless aerials but had been put off the idea until he re-read the book and realised that the masts were telescopic- only the bow mast had to be fully removed. So he will have everything raised and maybe have the periscopes operable too.

[raflaunches]

Hi everyone


Time for another update...


Dad has started the secondary layer of plating, he has almost completed one side. Before he started he cut out the bow sections and what a shape! Unfortunately he took them off before I got a picture but when he puts them on again I'll get the camera out ASAP!














Finally at the same time as weighed my Majestic class battleship, Dad decided to see how much the hull, batteries and motors weighed currently...


46lbs!!!